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Report: Economy Could Lose 2 Million Jobs in 2009

Report: Economy Could Lose 2 Million Jobs in 2009

Monday, January 12, 2009 4:33 PM

NEW YORK -- The U.S. job market worsened in December and could lose another 2 million jobs in 2009, a research group said on Monday.

The Conference Board, a private research group, said its Employment Trends Index fell to 99.6 in December, its lowest level in about 10 years. The index has fallen for 17 months and was down from a revised 101.2 in November, which was originally reported at 102.9.

"During 2008, total non-farm employment declined by more than 2.5 million and the sharp declines in the Employment Trends Index suggest that in 2009 this number could grow by another 2 million," Gad Levanon, senior economist at the Conference Board, was quoted as saying in the report.

"The continued deterioration in the Employment Trends Index signals that no turnaround in the labor market is to be expected in the near future."

Financial markets showed little reaction to the Conference board data, since it broadly reflected Friday's jobs report. Stocks held onto earlier losses .GSPC and U.S. government bonds remained steady to higher on the day.

Government data on Friday showing the U.S. unemployment rate surged to the highest in nearly 16 years last month as a deepening year-long recession forced companies to ax more than half a million jobs.

The U.S. economy lost an astonishing 1.9 million jobs in the past four months alone, an acceleration in layoffs toward the end of a year that brought the biggest drop in employment in more than a half century.

In all of 2008, 2.6 million people lost their jobs, the largest slump in employment since a 2.75 million drop in 1945.

The Conference Board says its index is based on eight components and is meant to be a forward-looking indicator.

The ETI components include the percentage of those who say jobs are "hard to get" in the Conference Board's monthly consumer confidence survey, the Labor Department's data on initial claims for unemployment insurance and the National Federation of Independent Business's reading on firms with jobs open.

Government and Federal Reserve data on industrial production, manufacturing, job openings and part-time employment are also used.

Right, cb! The people they don't count are the ones who have given up looking for work, and the ones working part-time that need full-time work. The actual unemployment rate is more like 13 or 14% rather than the seven plus percent they are now quoting. Typical of the way this country has been run, you only look at statistics or positions that support the great good of the political aims. And who knows if they are even counting illegals in the job-loss picture, or perhaps they threw out those stats to make sure more illegals have endorsement of the gov to keep swarming our jobs, just to benefit dismissing Americans for cheap labor so the chieftains running companies can please their stockholders and get their millions in bonuses.